Effective BD Strategies through Market Research

Understanding Your Market: How Market Research Forms the Bedrock of Effective BD Strategies

Today, understanding your market is no longer a nicety in the fast-paced business world we live in; it's an absolute necessity. I have been in the trenches of Business Development for years and can tell you from first-hand experience that any strategy you might deploy without deep knowledge of the market is akin to navigating without a map. That's where market research really comes in—why it's such a cornerstone for BD, and how you're actually going to use it to drive true success.

Imagine What You Could Lose by Skipping Market Research

Suppose you invested all of your time, energy, and money into an innovative business strategy only to realize further down the road that your target market has shifted, your competitors outran you, or the product simply doesn't hit home. This is a situation too foreign from those businesses that do not invest in thorough market research. The reality is that with a sound grip on your market, such traps are easy to avoid and strategies become not only smart but also sustainable.

Why Market Research Matters in Business Development

Spotting Opportunities and Gaps

It's like giving market research a sixth sense, allowing us to find the gaps and the unsupplied needs within markets. Study after study finds that companies that base their business decisions upon good, sound data are far more likely to win customers, retain those customers, and have profitability.

Real-Life Example: Starbucks leveraged the growing demand for healthier beverages in 2018 through the utility of market research. The creation of less calorie-containing alternatives not only satisfied consumer desires, but it also experienced a significant increase in sales on its own.

Understanding What Your Customers Really Want

To understand what they want from a product or service, you need to delve deeper into what drives them. Think about this: it has been recorded that 77% of consumers are most likely to purchase from a brand that develops its offering based on very granular insights about the market.

Now, Netflix knows it; through advanced market research, it knows the kind of shows and movies that its target audience enjoys, hence wave after wave of hits in original programming.

Watch What Your Competitors Are Doing

Knowing your competition's next move empowers you to tailor your strategies appropriately. Through market research, you will understand what is working in their favor and where they fail, hence the ability to position your offerings effectively.

Insight: A report indicated that firms that routinely conduct competitive analysis as a part of market research are 20 percent more profitable than those that fail to do so.

Reducing Risk

Any new product launched or new market entered does carry associated risks. However, the risks become far more manageable when homework is done. Businesses which do invest in adequate market research before a launch are much more likely to succeed.

Lesson Learned: Does anyone remember how Coca-Cola invented a failure in 1985 when they came up with "New Coke"? They didn't understand the attachment their customers had with the original formula. It stands out as one of the worst product failures ever.

How to Get Market Research Right

Set Clear Objectives: What do you want to learn? Are you exploring an entering new market, trying to learn about customer needs, or sizing up the competition?

Gather Your Data: Pool the primary data comprising surveys and interviews with secondary data, reports, and studies.

Analyze What You've Got: Look for patterns and insights that could lead to strategies. SWOT is a tool to make sense of the data.

Put Them to Work: Use the insight to drive your business development. Whether you are tweaking a product, adjusting your price, or targeting a new audience, let the data lead the way.

Why Market Research is Non-Negotiable in BD

Market research isn't just one of the tools in your BD toolkit; it's foundational to your BD toolkit. This enables one to make far more pinpointed decisions, thereby mitigating risks, and it also enables the identification of opportunities that could have been overlooked. So, moving into a data-driven world, let's embrace that fully to build much more robust and resilient businesses.

Let's Talk: You and Market Research

Now, it's your turn. How has market research shaped your business strategies? And have you had that moment when research saved the day? Share in the comments below—I look forward to learning from experiences and seeing how we can use market research to power all our BD efforts.

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